Seminar on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetics
Center for Research on Ethical/Legal/Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics
Department of Psychiatry
How Parents Understand and Act on Uncertain Prenatal Genetic Test Results: “They can't find anything wrong with him, yet....”
Allison Werner-Lin, PhD, LCSW
Assistant Professor, School of Social Policy and Practice, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Adjunct Investigator, Clinical Genetics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute
Prenatal genome-wide testing, such as chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), increases the possibility of identifying uncertain results associated with variable or unpredictable phenotypes, including the possibility of neurocognitive impairment. How do prospective parents prepare for the birth of a child after learning these results? How do they approach parenting? What supports do they need to cope with distress? Dr. Werner-Lin will address the ways parents understand and interpret these test results to make decisions about how best to parent their infant and the potential long range impact of discovering these variants on the child's psychosocial growth.